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Sunday, May 5, 2013

I have talked about brining poultry and
pork but one thing I haven't written about much is dry brining.

Dry brining is just what it says,
brining without liquid. The salt in the rub induces the pores of
the meat to open up and draws out liquid that mixes with the
seasonings of the rub. After a while, the seasonings and liquid are
pulled back into the meat. With dry brining, you need to give it the
full length of recommended time, don't short change it. Otherwise
the moisture might not be reabsorbed and the meat can be dry.

I recently experimented with dry
brining using a recipe for Dry Brined Beer Can Chicken from the 2013
Southern Living book All Fired Up.

reprinted with permission from All Fired Up by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013

It took 24 hours to brine the two birds
but the wait was worth it. (click the link below for recipe)

Dry Brined Beer Can Chicken

by reprinted with permission from All Fired Up by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013

Prep Time: 30 min + 24 hours for dry brining

Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients (8 servings)

1⁄4 cup kosher salt

1 Tbsp. light brown sugar

2 tsp. pimentón (sweet smoked Spanish paprika)

11⁄2 tsp. dried marjoram or oregano

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

3 bay leaves, finely crumbled

2 (31⁄2- to 4-lb.) whole chickens

1 large oven bag

2 (12-oz.) cans brown ale

Instructions

Combine first 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle skin and cavities of chickens with salt mixture. Place chickens in oven bag; twist end of bag, and close with tie. Chill 24 hours.

Light 1 side of grill, heating to 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat; leave other side unlit. Reserve 1⁄2 cup beer from each can for another use. Place each chicken upright onto a beer can, fitting into cavity. Pull legs forward to form a tripod, allowing chickens to stand upright.

Place chickens upright on unlit side of grill. Grill, covered with grill lid, 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes or until golden and a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 170°. Let stand 10 minutes. Carefully remove chickens from cans; cut into quarters.

I followed the recipe as written except I did one of the birds spatchcocked instead of beer can to see how the same recipe tasted with a different technique. I did these on the Big Green Egg, "raised direct" meaning the grill grate is up higher than usual which gives more of a buffer between the hot coals below and takes more advantage of the reflective heat from the closed grill lid. [Note: You don't have to do this for the beer can chicken on a regular grill, I was doing this for the spatchcocked bird.]

To raise the grid up like that, I used two fire rings instead of just one. I know not everyone has an extra Egg fire ring sitting around. Instead you can can used a couple of fire bricks like Kristy of Necessary Indulgences shows on her Big Green Egg in this picture.

Where's my beer can in the picture? I used a beer can throne instead. This one is from Craycort designed specifically to fit their insert system.

They both got a nice color.

Not surprisingly, the spatchcock bird cooked about 30 minutes quicker.

Both tasted excellent. The dry brine not only infused flavor to the birds and doubled as a rub, it gives an appealing texture to the crispy skin. This chicken needs to be on your grill this summer.

This comes from All Fired Up from the folks at Southern Living. I recently received a review copy of and I am impressed.

All Fired Up - Smokin' Hot BBQ Secrets from the
South's Best Pitmasters

by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013

$24.95

The Authors

Brought to you by the editors of
Southern Living and Troy Black. Troy Black is a championship winning
competitive BBQ cook and is currently the face of the Sam's Club
National BBQ Tour, the richest competition series on the BBQ
competition circuit. You might have seen him on The Food Network,
The Travel Channel, Fox and Friends, The CBS Early Show, or many
other media outlets.

The Book

All Fired Up is a full
size, 288 page softcover book. The cover is reinforced, tougher than
a paperback. The book makes a visual impact as soon as you pick it
up because the entire thing is in color, not just the pictures.

Before the recipes kick
in, Troy gives a primer for grilling and bbq, including demonstrative
photos on things like

Set ups for gas
grills, charcoal grills, and smokers

Troy's top 10 bbq
tools

using charcoal

direct and indirect
cooking tips

how to use wood

All Fired Up is also
laced with tips, stories, and nuggets of wisdom from some of the
South's best pitmasters.

The Recipes:

After the tips, the book
dives into the 175 recipes which are categorized into typical BBQ
book structure

Sauced and slathered

Authentic BBQ

Beef It Up

Pit Out

Hot Chix

Fresh Catch

Special Extras

Just thumbing through the
recipes, I immediately seized on recipes that I wanted to try. The
titles, photos and recipes just kept pulling me in with each turn of
the page. The recipes range from traditional bbq pork, ribs, chicken
and brisket to great grilled fare like Vietnamese BBQ tacos, sweet
ginger chicken thighs, and pork tenderloin sliders with spicy
pickles.

In addition to the Dry
Brined Beer Can Chicken, I have tried several so other recipes,
including using the General Purpose BBQ Rub on some split chickens
that I smoked just to have on hand. Very good.

Whiskey Marinated Pork
Tenderloin – which Troy said was one of his favorites on the BBQ
Central Radio Show last week. Alexis picked this one out and we weren't disappointed.

Tip: birch syrup is awful on pancakes but works better than maple syrup for meats, IMO.

There are tons of more recipes that I
want to try but I think the next thing will be the Sorghum Beef Ribs,
that recipe sounds fantastic.

The Photos:

The 400 photographs are drool worthy
and impressive. The food styling and photography capture the spirit
of these fantastic recipes, compelling you to want to try them.
Photos of BBQ joints mixed in help set the mood, you can almost smell
the smoke coming off of the pages. Overall, this has some of the
best photos I have seen in the numerous BBQ cookbooks sitting on my
shelf, except one.

Summary

All Fired Up is an
exceptional book and can put you on the track for inspired grilling
all summer long. Whether you only grill a handful of times a year or
grill several times a week like I do, All Fired Up has something for
you.

16 comments:

I'm curious which you thought was better. I am dubious in general of the beer can method. Only because I am not an experienced grill guy. But when I roast a chicken I like the oven environment to be as dry as possible. GREG

I don't know much about wet or dry brining. I brined a pork roast once and everything seemed to go smoothly. But what I'm interested in is that cookbook. Anything from Southern Living catches my attention.

I've dry brined once.. but it was for only about two hours... still noticed a difference, though. The chicken looks amazing!Will definitely have to check out the All Fired Up cookbook too... it's been too long since I bought a new cookbook!

Beer Can Chicken is one of our signature dishes. We invested in the Weber roaster accessory. We dry brine for only several hours and it works for us. It is so easy and tastes so good. The chicken them becomes many other meals. I will always wonder if it tastes better cooked on the BGE. I hope Ms. Goofy is reading this.

I have subscribed to Southern Living magazine for 25 years and their recipes are always so good - will have to order up this book! I have not heard of dry brining and the just the word "spatchcocked" makes me laugh...are you sure that's what it's called? Sounds like something the Marquis de Sade would say/do! The sun is still out in Seattle, as is the mountain...but rain is just around the corner so might have to dust off the grill tonight!

Mike - no regular bricks should not be used for one reason. The moisture content in the bricks varies and from what I have HEARD (don't have scientific stuff to prove it handy), they can "explode" when heated. So I wouldn't chance it.

Now this is a brining method I can actual do! I think lol :) Never knew this was considered brining, I woulda thought it was just a rub. And I LOVE beer can chicken so I know I'd be all over this. That Whiskey pork tenderloin sounds amazing too. Love me some pork tenderloin!

Killer post! I love dry brined chicken...although I don't think mine turned out as well as yours. Also a big fan of spatchcocking ...I actually did a Turkey like that one year for Thanksgiving. Cheers!